Christmas Feasting at the Court of King James I
Roast Boar and Gilded Marchpane the King's Christmas Table
While the early seventeenth century was poised on the edge of great uncertainty and change, hopes for the new Stuart dynasty were still high during King James’ reign (1603-1625). So, despite concerns over the growing religious controversies that would eventually split the kingdom, Christmas still held an important place as a time of celebration, hospitality and community spirit
Christmas Spirits
King James kept these values alive with great feasting and entertainment and the court enjoyed a generous flow of wine from ‘France and in lesser quantities from the Moselle and Rhineland regions’ (Sarah Paston-Williams, The Art of Dining, 1993, p. 156). Christmas ale and mulled wine, both hot and heavily spiced, were popular with the people and the nobility but imported spirits, such as brandy and rum, were only for those who could afford them.
Main Dishes
The food enjoyed at Christmas would have included roast turkey, goose, game birds and, at court, peacock gilded and served in its own feathers. Other meats were also popular according to regional tastes and availability. In Scotland venison was a favourite, while southerners preferred ham or bacon. Spit-roasting was the usual method for cooking large pieces of meat, with the meat being cooked on a rotating skewer turned by a servant, which lead to the expression, ‘done to a turn’.
Scotch Collops
Scotch Collops was a popular dish easily adapted to regional tastes. ‘Collops’ were thin slices of whatever meat was favoured or available, dipped in seasoned flour then fried quickly before being casseroled in a rich gravy with wine, garlic, onions, mushrooms and anchovies. To ‘scotch’ something was to gash it or cut it and referred to the preparation of the collops into thin pieces.
The Boar’s Head
The medieval tradition of the roast Boar’s Head was still popular as a centre-piece for Christmas Day, Twelfth Night or both, and would be carried aloft into the banqueting hall with a fanfare of trumpets. The Boar’s Head was boned, stuffed with forcemeat to keep its shape and prevent the meat drying out, then roasted and served ‘bedecked with bay and rosemary’, as recorded in the Boar’s Head Carol, with a lemon or an apple in its mouth.
Plum Pudding
Plum Pottage was well-established by the time of King James, and on its way to becoming the Christmas pudding of today. It had started out as thick soup of boiled beef or mutton with dried fruit and plenty of spices but was developing into a solid steamed pudding without meat at all.
Such substantial food, laden with fat, dried fruits and sugars, was popular in the damp British weather for its high energy values and insulation against the cold. ‘Cambridge’ or ‘College’ pudding was made with suet, breadcrumbs, flour, dried fruit and eggs, while ‘shred’ or ‘mince’ pies, still popular today, were another Christmas favourite which like plum pudding, were once made with fruit and minced meat.
Just Desserts
The more refined court diners would also have enjoyed lighter sweet dishes with delicate and beautiful presentation for the King’s table being an important part of their appeal. Exotic fruits, including pineapples and bananas, were making an early appearance while sugar based dishes, like White Biscuit Bread, were a court favourite. Similar to a meringue this delicacy was flavoured with almonds, lemon, coriander and aniseed. Syllabub and white-pot, an ancestor of bread-and-butter pudding, all featured on the table, with an emphasis on rich ingredients, with plenty of eggs and cream.
Gilded Marchpane
Marchpane (marzipan) was a popular sweet centrepiece for a banquet, decorated with ‘sugar plate’, which was similar to fondant icing and then gilded with gold leaf. John Partridge’s recipe for Gilded Marchpane suggests using two rabbit’s tails, one dampened, one dry, to apply the gold leaf and stencils so that ‘the forme of a Harte, or the name of Iesus, or any other thing whatsoever’ can be used to decorate the wonderful confection (The Treasurie of Commodious Conceits and Hidden Secrets, 1584).
Politics and Generosity
All of these dishes and many more made their appearance at Christmas and New Year in the court celebrations of King James I. The generosity of the monarch showed both that he could be lavish with his subjects and that he had the wealth to entertain them freely. As with many of the Christmas traditions, lavish hospitality for the court both broke down and reinforced social boundaries in the same time.
Many hands were needed in the King's kitchen
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